Seeking action for equality, development, peace.

• Author: Seufert-Barr, Nancy
• Position: Includes related articles on activities of United Nations and recommendations for Economic and Social Council - Fourth World Conference on Women - Cover Story

Moving into the 21st century, the drive for women's rights has accelerated and taken on a powerful and global momentum. In the 20 years since the first global conference on women's issues was held in Mexico City, the campaign for equality between women and men has witnessed significant changes and undeniable advances.

Not only have Governments adopted major legislation that promotes equal opportunities, treatment and rights, but women are now entering the labour market in unprecedented numbers, pursuing a greater role at all levels of public life, and gaining crucial access to proper health care, education and civil justice.

But how much have these advances improved the everyday life of the average woman? The picture is mixed. Despite growing evidence that investments in women have had an enormous impact on society as a whole, millions of individual women continue to face discrimination in social, economic, political and cultural spheres:

* In 1993, only six women around the world headed Governments. Currently, only 6 of the 184 ambassadors to the UN are women.

* Two thirds of the world's illiterates are women and they are becoming educated at a slower rate than men.

* On average, women's salaries are 30 to 40 per cent lower than these of men, for the same work.

* Half a million women die each year from complications due to childbirth, and another 100,000 from unsafe abortions.

* Violence against women is pervasive, from the United States where a woman is battered every 18 minutes, to India where five women are burned in dowry-related disputes each day.

To assess the progress and shortfalls of the past two decades and identify action to be taken into the next century, thousands of women and men from around the world will meet in Beijing, China, from 4 to 15 September 1995 for the Fourth World Conference on Women.

This UN-sponsored global meeting will offer Governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector and individuals an opportunity to review their efforts and renew their commitment to improve the equality and conditions of women and defend their human rights. The main objectives include:

* To adopt a Platform for Action, concentrating on key issues identified as obstacles to the advancement of women throughout the world.

* To determine priority actions to be taken by the international community, including the UN, between 1996 and 2001 for the advancement of women.

* To mobilize women and men at both the policy-making and grass-roots levels to achieve those objectives.

A parallel "NGO Forum on Women '95" will be held from 30 August to 8 September 1995, also in Beijing.

The Fourth Conference will carry forward the themes of "Equality, Development and Peace", which highlighted the first UN conference on women, held in Mexico City in 1975, and were developed during the subsequent UN Decade for Women (1976-1985).

The second World Conference, convened in Copenhagen in 1980, added three sub-themes: "Education, Employment and Health". The third, held in Nairobi in 1985, incorporated those themes into the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the Year 2000.

Forward looking Strategies

The Forward-looking Strategies provided a framework for action at all levels to promote empowerment of women and their enjoyment of human rights. The goals of the Strategies, which were intended to be implemented by the year 2000, include equal rights for women, the abolition of slavery and prostitution, establishment of a legal minimum age for marriage and punishment for female infanticide.

At the social policy level, the Strategies call for access by all women to maternity leave, maternal health care, family planning, nutrition and education as well as for increased national health budgets.

In 1990. a mid-decade evaluation of the Forward-looking Strategies by the Commission on the Status of Women revealed that the world...